You have touched on issues that have bothered me for some time but I have tried to push them to the back of my mind. For too long now, MarsDawn has resembled a Saturday Morning serial from the 40’s… a 90’s "Perils of Pauline" if you will. First one probe and then another needs to be rescued. The danger of each dilemma escalating until we finally need to "Kill" a probe to get our fix. This group has emphasized over and over its desire for friendship and to explore but we are continually frustrated by seemingly petty roadblocks put in our way by a sadistic "Dungeon Master". Perhaps that is the nature of this genre. It is impossible to learn about "New" technology from alien beings since the technology doesn’t actually exist. This was a major shortcoming at Eon-4 and a big reason for the explorers being constantly on the move. Can’t stay at the Library since it will become obvious that they aren’t learning anything. When on board ship something must continue to intrude on their attempts to learn or we have the same problem. The only answer is to have a lot of "Action" and at this site the only action possible is to put the probes at risk. The other problem is that writing for six probes was apparently a lot more difficult than originally anticipated. Thus at least one probe is out of communication at all times… now we’re down to four, if you count Gail or Daniel (neither of which is actually communicating). The writers have their work cut out for them. They’ve painted themselves into a corner that we don’t like and I fear for the future of MarsDawn. Just my $.02 worth as well.
PEACE-The Final Frontier!
Uncle Bob